


here i break from the concept (though it's central to the piece)

by phanofstars



Series: It's a world of your imagination [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, kinda sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 11:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17243495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phanofstars/pseuds/phanofstars
Summary: Dan's a magician who has meddled in something he shouldn't have.Phil's a psychic who runs a magic shop.





	here i break from the concept (though it's central to the piece)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from area 11's 'All The Lights In The Sky'

There were three of them, hands held, book open flat on the floor in front of them. The words of power burnt at Dan’s lips as he let them fly, weaving into the spell that was almost visible between them, a nest of silk thin light.  
Something took over and the light darkened. Even through his enchanted state he could tell something was wrong.   
A half finished spell was a dangerous thing, an unbalanced equation that would do anything to balance itself again.  
As Dan tried to pull away something else had to be pulled forward. There was a flash and a burst of sulphur.  
There were three of them but when Dan came back to his body there were only one set of eyes staring back at him.

 

_Whatever you’re going to do, don’t do it_  
“But-”  
_Please Dan, for me. I have a bad feeling whenever you go to leave_  
“I have a mistake to fix”  
_Promise me something_  
“I can’t”  
_Promise me you’ll come back_  
“You know I can’t do that”

 

Some nights Dan would dream. He hoped they were dreams, they were either dreams or memories and dreams seemed the better option. He pictured blue eyes and a little magical supply shop, of a coven often filled with laughter later replaced with tears and a rotten silence, of a man with brown curly hair and a raven at his beck and call.   
Dan hated the man, hated his humanity, hated his mistakes.

 

“We could be together again- all three of us”  
“PJ, are you sure-”  
“Dan.”  
PJ knew it was Dan’s fault. PJ had felt Dan pull away and had felt Sophie give in to fill the vacuum. He never mentioned it but sometimes Dan would find him staring at him across the room from his throne of research books, a bitter expression etched across his face. He would look down when he realised Dan had caught him, but the bitterness hung in the air between them in a gap that wasn’t there before, and on lonely nights it ate away at Dan. He would do anything to fix his mistake, give himself up to bring her back. There would be a price to pay and Dan would gladly pay it. He had nothing to lose.

 

“Dan! You came back”  
“Stay back”  
“Dan- what have you done, what in Merlin’s name have you done to yourself”  
“Get away from me”  
“Dan… I can fix it. Please, let me fix it”  
“Leave me alone Phil” It came out as a broken sob. Phil took a hesitant step forward leaves crunching under his feet “I said leave!” The sob turned into a roar, enhanced with magic, that sent Phil tumbling backwards his head crashing down onto the hard grass of a garden in Autumn.

 

The cabin in the woods housed their coven. The townspeople stayed away from it, away from them. They didn’t care. The Library was stocked, the herb garden fruitful and since when had they needed company other than each other? They were young and bold and curious. Nothing could hurt them.

 

PJ had given Dan a list of herbs they needed, rare things their neglected garden had never produced even when there was someone who tended it. The man behind the counter had smiled at Dan when he’d stumbled into the shop. He hadn’t been what Dan was expecting but then again you could never really expect things from magic shops.  
"Haven’t seen you in a while” Dan couldn’t remember ever walking into the small magical supply shop before.

 

Sometimes Dan dreamed of darker things.  
Arguments, the smell of sulfur, the image of a man watching sadly through a shop window as Dan shuffled away down the small high street, head bowed and clutching a bag full of herbs.  
A book, bound in rusted leather. Words that should have never been written let alone read and examined and spoken. The feeling of a half finished spell desperate to be completed.  
Cold green eyes skimming through book after book, cold green eyes draining of colour, cold green eyes closed with the remains of the man they belonged to unconscious on the floor.

 

“Well, I’ve placed your order. It should be ready in a week or so, I’ll contact you when it is. I mean- you could come back before then, if you wanted” A shy smile lit the man’s face. Dan couldn’t look away.  
“Thanks-”  
“- Phil” The other man smoothed down his apron, eyes down “That offer is open any time Dan” he mumbled. Dan had never told him his name.

 

“You promised”  
“No, PJ, it’s not like that- it’s just this ritual, it’s-”  
“Even more forbidden than the first one? We passed the point of no return long ago Dan”  
“I just don’t think that this is a very good idea”  
“Of course you don’t” The bitterness was back, seeping through everything. Even PJ’s magic tasted bitter now. “I guess I’ll just do this on my own”  
The book slammed down on the floor in front of them, right in the centre of the lines of chalk (not just chalk, but Dan didn’t really want to think about what else they were made from).  
Even as the first word of power left PJ’s lips, they both knew that it was going to go horribly wrong.

 

Phil kissed him under the oak tree, where his garden met the woods. He buried his hands in Dan’s hair and pressed their lips together sweetly. It left Dan gasping when he pulled away.  
The moon cast shadows down over both of their faces so Dan felt rather than saw the moment the vision hit Phil. His body collapsed like a ragdoll but Dan just cradled him close on the dewy grass. “Whatever you are going to do, don’t do it”

 

He knew he was getting dragged in, could feel his magic being pulled around inside of him.  
A ritual made for three people could not be performed by one, the magic didn’t balance. PJ was fading fast, his eyes widened in terror.  
Dan made a choice and wished goodbye to blue eyes he would have bargained anything he had left to give for a little more time with, then stepped inside the chalk lines.

 

Magic was a cruel mistress. Only few could carry her power, even fewer chose the path. Spells were a balancing act between giving and taking. To create something, something else had to be destroyed.  
There were many branches of magic- Psychics who traded glimpses of the future for glimpses of their past, Healers who took on the price of the wounds they healed, Conjurors and Warlocks and Wizards who dabbled in spells and traded pieces of themselves away in return. Every magic user knew the price of a debt to magic too high to pay.

 

Phil crashed to the floor and Dan tried to reach out, to grab him, to hold him. He hadn’t meant to- he lost his fragile grip on his form and dissolved into a void of darkness and magic, leaving behind an unconscious man under an oak tree with a raven cawing after him.  
There were so many mistakes he had made, so many things that he hadn’t meant to do, but one stood out now clear above the rest: he had never meant to come back.

 

“She’s beautiful” Dan stroked the top of his raven’s head gently. She cawed in return. “What’s her name?”  
“Yew” Dan took a breath “Phil, I want you to look after her if… anything happens to me”  
“What. But Dan-”  
“Just promise me, alright?”  
Phil was quiet for a few moments, staring intently at Dan the same way Yew sometimes did.   
"Okay, I promise” A promise between magic users was a serious thing. Dan half expected a thunder clap to sound “But Dan- promise me something. Promise me you’ll come back.”  
The bag of herbs sat on the counter between them. Dan picked them up and gently deposited his familiar onto the counter in their place.  
“You know I can’t do that”

 

Dan, or the creature that was what remained of Dan, dreamed. He drifted through the world as a shadow, going where the wind took him. Sometimes, when he had enough of a control over himself, he would pull himself down into a human-like form. Then he would remember, and weep black tears.

 


End file.
